1 Answer

Although people do business with Scrooge, they do not socialize with the man. In Stave I, Dickens writes that no one would stop him on the street to say, "with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" Nor do any of the beggars ask for a "trifle"; even the children do not bother to approach him and ask what hour it is; not a man or woman his...

Although people do business with Scrooge, they do not socialize with the man. In Stave I, Dickens writes that no one would stop him on the street to say, "with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" Nor do any of the beggars ask for a "trifle"; even the children do not bother to approach him and ask what hour it is; not a man or woman his entire life asks directions of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.

With humor, Dickens adds that blind men's dogs recognize him, but they pull their owners into doorways or into courtyards to hide them as they wag their tails at Scrooge as if to utter,

"No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!"

This avoidance of people does not hurt Scrooge; rather, he likes that people are not in his way.